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Today's
Stories
February
9, 2004
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with Jewish
Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine in
Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide from
Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure: Our
Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Jordan
Green
Democratic Patronage in Northern New
Mexico
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
January
24/5, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Shia: "Our Day Has Come"
Laura
Flanders
State of the Conservative Union
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Enter Berger: Signs of Hope in Guatemala
Dave
Lindorff
Ground Control to Maj. George
Susan
Davis
The Birdwatcher Menace
Alexander
Cockburn
The Fog of Cop Out: McNamara 10, Morris
0
January
23, 2004
Yonathan Shapira
An Israeli Pilot Speaks Out
Standard
Schaefer
Italian Philosopher Giorgio Agamben
Protests US Travel Policy
Josh
Frank
In Defense of Polluters: Howard Dean's
Vermont
William
A. Cook
Rule by the Corrupt and the Capricious
January
22, 2004
Sam
Smith
Howards End?
Patricia
Koyce Wanniski
Lost in Space
Alexander
Lukin
Putin and the Clans
Katherine
van Wormer
Dry Drunk Confirmed: O'Neill's Revelations
and Bush's Mind
Forrest
Hylton
The Prisoner, the President and the Mafia
|
February
9, 2004
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEO's
Inside
John Kerry's Closet
By MICHAEL DONNELLY
Last
month, some ninety environmentalists gathered in DC to consider what
to do about the BushCo assaults on our nation's public ecosystems. The
group, mostly paid staffers of one group or another, sat through a two-hour
long report from the DC greens' "political expert." She regaled
the group with strategies necessary "now that Dean has the nomination
sewed up."
When
told this tale, I thought, "Hey. If someone this clueless can get
six-figures for such obviously lame assessments, maybe I should take
a stab at it." So, here are my 2004 election year predictions:
1)
Unless Skull and Bones desires a change in their CEO, it's Bush in a
landslide. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) will get the DLC nomination. And,
then his real record will come out.
A
friend recently wrote, "I just ran into a woman in (the organic
grocery) who's been working on the Kerry campaign for 18 months, when
I asked her what his political accomplishments are, she hesitated and
said, "Well, I don't know, check out his website."
Save
yourself the website search, here's a synopsis:
It's
deplorable. Three-hundred-seventeen bills introduced. Seven passed.
And four of those were ceremonial ones -- designating special days.
Voted for the horrific Telecommunications Act (in fact, led the charge);
voted for the illegal war/occupation; voted for the Patriot Act (in
fact, helped draft parts of it when it was first drafted under Clinton);
brags about voting for class war on poor moms and kids--Clinton's welfare
"reform" -- need I go on?
Yes,
I will. One of the few Bills he got passed was 1999's Plan Columbia,
the phony Drug War's defoliation of the rainforest with toxic chemicals.
Since the Plan was launched some 325,000 acres of South America's oldest
democracy have been sprayed with toxins, yet there has been no drop
off in cocaine imports to the US. In fact, according to the Harvard
Political Review, Columbia's cocaine production increased 11%.
The
multimillionaire John Kerry, who rails against "special interests"
on the campaign trail, got more special interest PAC money than any
other senator this last six years! And, he refused to accept voluntary
spending limits.
Expect to see this GOP ad: Kerry at the helm of the "Scaramouche,"
his $750,000 speed boat (he paid cash!), with overdubs of Kerry's pontificating
about "millionaires" and "overprivileged."
Then,
we'll see ads of Mr. Forbes Heinz skiing at a palatial Aspen spa (they
own it!). And, just wait until they trot out the ad with footage of
Kerry exhorting Vietnam vets to throw their medals over the Capitol
fence and then cut to Kerry's medals framed on his office wall. The
creep actually threw fake medals while encouraging others to throw their
real ones!
They
may not even need to point out his lying over his narcissistic taking
of poisonous injections of Botox - a lie not even necessary in these
MTV days. When a Boston radio announcer asked him last week: "Can
you categorically deny the reports that you have used Botox or other
kinds of cosmetic surgery or cosmetic enhancements to your appearance?"
Kerry responded, "Absolutely, I've never even heard of it."
Very interesting, since his current heiress wife, Teresa Heinz, has
been quoted in Elle magazine about her fondness for the stuff.
Speaking
of Teresa Heinz, she heads up the Heinz Environmental Defense Fund.
The fund's most prominent board members since 1995 is none other than
Enron's Ken Lay. Enron's bank, Citigroup, has been a major contributor
to Kerry's various campaigns. In 1995, Kerry cast the deciding vote
to override Clinton's veto of the very bill used by Enron and Citigroup
to conduct their now well-known consumer rip-offs. Can you just imagine
if Dr. Judy Steinberg Dean was hanging out with Key Lay? How about Laura
Bush?
2)
Dick Cheney? The question here is: will he resign BEFORE or AFTER the
election? If before, expect to see Rudy Guliani as vice-presidential
candidate. If after, expect to see Elizabeth Dole reprise the Gerry
Ford role. The other Cheney question is: how long before he is indicted
on bribery charges?
3)
Colin Powell? Expect to see Powell resign soon after the election for
"health reasons."
4)
Nixon Redux. Some time in 2006, Congress will begin exploring Impeachment
proceedings for Bush. All sorts of charges will be leveled -- most true.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will play the hero role here as a member of
the "Intelligence Failure" investigation commission. Expect
the CIA to doggedly defend its turf and turn viciously on BushCo.
Heads will begin to roll over the security 'failures' of 9/11. The country
will be in crisis mode. The heroines here will be the few, courageous
9/11 widows who refused to take the government hush money.
Then
faced with possible treason charges, as well as Impeachment; Bush will
resign, as will Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle et al. Then, again reprising
the Ford role, President Dole will pardon the lot of them in the fine
American sweep-it-under-the-rug tradition. "Our second long national
nightmare is over."
Then,
come 2008, it'll be Clinton v. Dole again. H. Clinton and E. Dole provided
Dole can get by the right-wing assault in the Republican primary. (The
Brahmins of Skull and Bones won't lick wounds for very long.)
How
that all turns out will depend on whether or not there is a true progressive
in the race.
But,
for now, the real question for all those "Nader cost Gore"
head-in-the-sand folks is: why are the Democrats throwing the election
again?
MICHAEL
DONNELLY is a zero-figure political prognosticator living in Salem,
OR. He can be reached at Pahtoo@aol.com
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